Stacey Holly, 37, is in tears as she speaks to officers with the Goodyear Police Department outside a Target, video shows.
An Arizona mother emotionally tells police she's "freaking out" after realizing she forgot her baby in her car on a hot June day, newly released police bodycam footage shows.
Stacey Holly, 37, is in tears as she speaks to officers with the Goodyear Police Department outside a Target, video shows.
"I don't know, I honestly don't know how it happened," she says. "I don't ... I'm freaking out, I'm sorry. I just, I don't know how it happened. Like, how do you forget your baby?"
Holly went shopping inside the store with her sister and her 6-year-old daughter, leaving her 5-month-old infant in the vehicle for what she thought was about 30 minutes before she realized what had happened and called police herself, according to local station KTVK. Investigators said the infant was trapped in the car for more like an hour.
The baby's body was cold to the touch from sweating so much when the child was pulled out of the vehicle. The infant miraculously lived.
"I can't believe the kid survived that long," a first responder says in the footage. "They probably had the car, like, ice cold before they parked. It's all, I think, that probably saved the kid."
Temperatures soared into the 100s that day.
"I think that these people who do it, who you see on TV, I'm like, 'God, how stupid are they to leave their kids in the car?' And then it happened," Holly says in the video.
Holly is charged with child abuse recklessness and endangerment. She has pleaded not guilty and is next due in court on Sept. 19.
Officers at the scene noted in their report that the mother seemed genuinely remorseful about what had happened.
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